The International Literacy Association (ILA) Timothy & Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award honors an outstanding doctoral student who focused their research in the reading, writing, or literacy field or who conducted related research with implications for reading, writing, or literacy. Interviews with the winning scholar are published each year in Reading Research Quarterly.

Sponsored by Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan

Applicants for the Timothy & Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award must have completed dissertations in any aspect of the field of reading or literacy between January 2024 and December 2024 and had their dissertation approved by their committee.

Studies may use any research approach (ethnographic, experimental, historical, survey, etc.). Each study will be assessed in light of its approach, its scholarship, and its significant contributions to knowledge within the reading/literacy field. Previously published monographs are not eligible for this award.

Dissertation monographs will be evaluated, through a blind review process, using the following criteria:

• Significance of Research Question
• Theoretical Framework/Literature Review
• Rationale for the Research
• Appropriateness and Adequacy of the Methodology/Approach
• Significance/Implications for Practice and Research
• Clarity, Cohesion, and Specificity

To be eligible, an applicant must be an ILA member in good standing and maintain active membership through June 30, 2026.

To be considered for the 2025 Timothy & Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award, applications must be completed and all required materials submitted no later than February 3, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Applicants will be notified of the results before June 30, 2025.

* Required

Note: To be eligible for consideration, applicants must be an ILA member in good standing and maintain active membership in ILA through June 30, 2026. Member status will be verified during the review process.

The following materials should be uploaded as one document (preferably a PDF), prepared in strict adherence to the guidelines below. Please remove any identifying information, including names and institutional affiliations, to ensure the integrity of the blind review process. Failure to include all components and/or remove all identifying information may result in disqualification.

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Title Page With Abstract

Provide a 150-word abstract. You should state, in nontechnical language, the purpose and major findings of your study. Please include the full title of your monograph.

Table of Contents

Include a table of contents that lists major divisions and headings in the monograph.

Dissertation Monograph

Prepare a monograph based on your dissertation research that is no longer than 40 double-spaced pages, in Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier font, with 1-inch margins on all sides. This page limit applies only to the main part of the monograph and does not include the abstract, table of contents, or reference list, but it does include any tables or figures that are included in the main part of the monograph. Monographs that exceed the maximum length will not be accepted. If additional space is required to present details of a research instrument or to elaborate on some other vital point, an appendix of up to three additional pages may be attached.

Include a short title with the monograph and review it carefully to ensure that it does not include any identifying information.

References

Provide complete bibliographic information for all sources cited in the proposal. References should be formatted using American Psychological Association (APA) 7th edition style. To accommodate the blind review process, if the submitter’s own publications are cited, the submitter should substitute the word Author in the citations (e.g., Author, 2019) and substitute all coauthor names with Coauthor (e.g., Author, Coauthor, 2019).

For applicants whose dissertation uses the three-paper format: Please attach a letter to the review committee directing its members to review specific aspects of your papers for each of the following areas of the evaluation criteria: Significance of Research Question; Theoretical Framework/Literature Review; Rationale for the Research; Appropriateness and Adequacy of the Methodology/Approach; and Significance/Implications for Practice and Research.